The Dance, Chapter Two
The Dance, Chapter Two I turned and looked at my friends. I then took in what they were wearing and what they looked like. Trinity wore a plain pink t-shirt and a jean skirt that went up to right above her knees. On her feet were white sneakers with long white laces that were double-knotted. Her dirty blonde-orangey hair was in a ponytail and slicked back with a headband, like it usually was (Trinity didn’t care much about how she looked, she didn’t really pay attention to her hair. That’s one thing we have in common). On her neck was Ai’s emerald necklace. It didn’t go with anything else she was wearing, but it did look nice on her. On her wrist was a bracelet with big wooden beads. Nicole looked much fancier than the both of us. She wore a spaghetti strap blue dress that went down to a little past her knees. Her hair was in two braids, one on each side of her head (Trinity had probably done those braids for her. Trinity knows how to do almost every single type of braid known to man, even though she barely cares about her own hair). She wore white sneakers with long white laces that matched Trinity’s (a lot of their shoes matched). Hanging from her neck was Ai’s diamond necklace. It was the same exact color as her dress and went perfectly with her outfit. We all looked at each other. “You look nice,” we all said to each other in unison. “Jinx!” we all yelled. “Knock on wood-” we all reached for Trinity’s wood bead necklace and knocked on it- “-touch red-” we all quickly poked the red cooler on the floor of the car- “-touch white!” We all reached for the end of Trinity’s skirt, but I poked it first. “Ha!” I exclaimed. “You both owe me sprite!” “Kelsi,” Trinity said in annoyance. “Whenever anyone says ‘you owe me sprite’ after jinx, it doesn’t mean anything.” “But this time it does,” I said. “Now as soon as we get to the school, you both have to go to the vending machine and get me one sprite each.” “Two sprites?” Nicole asked. “Why do you need two of them?” “Because I out-jinxed both of you,” I explained. “That’s not even a word,” Trinity said. “Well now it is,” I replied, leaning back in my seat. “And I out-jinxed both of you, so you both owe me a sprite!” “No,” Nicole said, laughing a bit. “We’re not buying you a sprite, Kelsi.” “Ooh,” I said, smiling. I then said, in a sing-songy voice, “Don’t you make me snap my fingers in z-for-ma-tion!” “That’s from like, the first grade,” Trinity pointed out. “Well, I don’t care if it’s old,” I joked. “Fine, you two don’t owe me a sprite.” “Thank you,” Nicole said, rolling her eyes and laughing a bit. “Anyway, Lance’s not coming to the dance, right?” “Yep,” I said, smiling. “He’s not. He doesn’t like dances, and I quote, ‘And all those girly things where girls show off stupid dance moves and whatnot’.” “Why did I know that wasn't coming?” Nicole said, flattening out the sides of her dress. “Because we know Lance too well,” Trinity said, leaning back in her seat. “And I’d rather not know him too well.” “Mmhmm,” I said. “Matt isn’t coming either.” “Thank the lord almighty!” Nicole said, fixing her hair a bit. “Matt and Lance are crazy apart, but when they‘re together, they’re annoying, idiotic, and crazy times two!” “Yeah,” I said. “You guys don’t realize how lucky you are, both of you, to have two sisters and no brothers.” “Well, sometimes having two sisters is crazy as well,” Trinity said, glaring at Nicole. “Nicole can kind of get in the way of school work. She doesn’t know how hard you have to work to survive eighth grade!” She said the last line a bit loudly so that Nicole could get the message. “And you can’t appreciate fun,” Nicole shot back. “Trinity, you never can really laugh and appreciate the greatness of life.” “Greatness of life?” Trinity asked. She leaned forward and whispered, to make sure Mrs. Bacon couldn’t hear, “I have a dad who doesn’t give a crap about me, a mom who doesn’t let me do anything, I have to fight bandits in a different world almost every single day, I don’t have anyone that really loves me, and you’re saying I should appreciate the greatness of life? There is no greatness of life, at least in my life!” “Trinity, come on, you should be glad we found these necklaces two months ago,” I whispered so that Mrs. Bacon couldn’t hear me. “That seemed to turn our lives around. It opened up so many doors for us and gave us opportunities to become legendary Kung Fu warriors. How was your life not great after we defeated Chauntella Mirar?” “Well, it’s kind of like we’re living two lives,” Trinity explained in an incredibly soft voice. “In our first life, we’re normal tween girls, attending a normal middle school and doing, well, normal things for normal girls to do. But in our second life, we’re legendary Kung Fu warriors who fight crime every day and protect a world inhabited by animals that act like humans.” “I have to agree with you there, sis,” Nicole agreed. “Me too,” I said. “It really does feel like we’re living two lives.” ---- We were quiet for the remainder of the car ride there. As Mrs. Bacon drove the car up the street that Henting Middle School was on, we immediately saw the large, brown and red bricked building. Cars were parked everywhere, and you could tell that a lot of students were attending the always popular Henting Middle School end of the year dance. The dance always fell on the evening of the last day of school, so all we had to do was get through this one dance, and we were done with school for the year and on to a summer of fun. And my definition of fun is training hard in the animal world; hanging out with Trinity and Nicole; going to camp in mid-July; spending a week at my dad’s cabin in Plymouth, Massachusetts; spending hours and hours at pools and beaches to swim, play, and work on my tan (my skin was almost pale white towards the beginning of every summer, and in September every year my skin was dark and tanned); and playing video games quite often. But what I was looking forward to most this summer was hanging out with Po and the furious five and defending the valley from crime. Maybe I’d learn some new fighting skills and get to use my new fire powers this summer. Well, whatever I did, I had a feeling that it would be a summer to remember. Mrs. Bacon pulled the car up to the west building, which was the quickest way to get to the west gym, where the dance would be. “Alright girls, I’ll be here to pick you all up at nine-thirty,” she explained. I looked up. “But the dance ends at ten,” I stated. “Kelsi, you girls can’t be out dancing until ten,” Mrs. Bacon said to me like it was the state law. I secretly rolled my eyes at Trinity and Nicole’s overprotective mother. “Alright mom, bye,” Trinity said as she opened the car door and we piled out. “Bye girls,” Mrs. Bacon said. She closed the car doors and started to drive away as we walked into the west building of our familiar middle school. “This is probably the last time I’ll ever be in this place for something that has to do with school,” Trinity said, smiling. “That’s right, you’re in the high school in September,” I remembered. “Ninth grade. Wow.” “Time really flies,” Nicole said. “And speaking of that, Nicole, how does it feel to be twelve?” I asked, nudging Nicole a little. Nicole had just turned twelve on June twelfth. It had been a week since her birthday, since today was the nineteenth, the last day of school and the day of the end of the year dance. We had thrown a birthday party for her at her house. We invited a few of her friends over (her friends from school, Lil, Addy, and Justine, I knew all of them), and we all had pizza and popcorn while watching ‘Kung Fu Panda 2’. We literally were rolling on the floor laughing at some points, and some parts we were hanging onto each other crying. After the movie we had ice cream cake and cookies, and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Nicole, who, after blowing out her candles, Lil accidentally pushed into the cake, and I mean literally into the cake. Her face was covered with ice cream and she started bawling like a baby. We all had fun, besides that part. And then we threw a HUGE party for her at the Jade Palace. This one was the biggest birthday party I’d ever been to. It was just the furious five, Po, Master Shifu, and the three Dragon Sisters, us, for most of the party, but it was a great party. It was catered by Mr. Ping, so of course, the food was great. After the birthday dinner, we got dressed all fancy and went to Mr. Ping’s Noodle Shop, where Mr. Ping was holding a dance. He had moved the tables and chairs aside. Other animals had come in dressed in fancy attire, and there was a band there. We danced the night away (I even got to dance with Po for awhile, which was one of the best moments of my life), and halfway through the night, Mr. Ping brought out a fancily decorated birthday cake. It had figures of all the masters of the Jade Palace on top of it, made out of fondant, icing, and rice treats (like they do on ‘Food Network Cake Challenge’). Everyone sang Happy Birthday and Nicole blew out her twelve candles. After all the candles were taken out of the cake, she was waiting for someone to push her face into it, but no one did. We all passed out around two in the morning. Best party ever! Trinity, Nicole and I came to the west gym. The doors were wide open, and a poster on the doors read: Henting Middle School End of the Year Dance! Please get a snack and drink ticket and sign in. We glanced inside. There was a DJ and a table with snacks and drinks on it. Pictures of palm trees and Hawaiian dancers covered the walls. Every year the dance has a theme. Last year’s theme was ‘Henting Middle School’s Fifty-fifth anniversary’, and this year was probably ‘Luau Style’. In the doorway, there was a white table with two women sitting at it. They had a bucket full of blue and red tickets in between them, and they each had a list of names in front of them. “If your last name is A through M, go on this line, and N through Z go on that line!” one woman was shouting. I looked at Trinity and Nicole. “I’ll see you two inside,” I said. They nodded, and went on the line on our right. I went on the line on our left, since my name starts with R and theirs starts with B. Soon, it was my turn to sign in. “What’s your name, honey?” the brown haired woman at the desk asked. I looked her in the eye. “Rider,” I said. “R-I-D-E-R.” “What was that?” she asked. I looked past her at the DJ. He was playing music so loud that I could barely hear myself think. “Rider!” I said louder. “R-I-D-E-R!” “Oh,” she said. She went to the ‘R’ page. “You’re Kelsi, right?” she asked. I nodded. “Okay, sweetie,” the woman said. She got out a stamper, pressed it into ink, then pressed it onto my hand. It looked like a smiley face. She gave me a blue ticket and a red ticket stapled together. She loudly explained that you could only get one drink and one snack throughout the whole night, and the tickets were used to get them so you could remember what you got. I nodded as she checked off my name. “You can go ahead!” she said. I walked past the desk and into the gym, where students were walking around, talking, and a few were dancing to the beat of the music coming from the DJ. There was a photo booth, a snack table, a DJ on the stage, a face painting place, a photo booth, and that was pretty much it. I sighed, waiting for Trinity and Nicole to get in. This would either be the worst night of my life, the best night of my life, or a normal night, with no affect on my life.